Must Read: Simon Gerrans says he’s always ridden clean

Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEdge) insists he’s clean and has always been so throughout his decade-long career, which began when the peloton was still deep into performance-enhancing drugs.

The 32-year-old Australian said in an interview with The Age that in light of the Armstrong Affair he wanted to reaffirm to the public that they can believe in his performances.

”I’m clean now, and I’ve been clean my whole riding career. There’s no doubt in my mind about that,” he told The Age. ”It seems a cop-out to say ‘I’ve passed all my doping controls,’ because that was always what Lance said. But you basically just have to take my word for it because I can’t give you any more than that.”

Gerrans’ comments followed the forced exit of sport director Matt White from the Australian national cycling team and Orica-GreenEdge after he admitted using PEDs during his career.

The victor at Milan-San Remo this year, with stage wins in all three grand tours, Gerrans says the peloton has changed and that he’s been lucky to have raced with “clean teams.”

”I’m really fortunate that I’ve never ever been exposed or been offered or pushed into taking any performance-enhancing substances,” he says. ”The reason I say I’m fortunate is because basically when I came into the sport the teams I’ve been involved with, and the people I’ve had around me, have all been great people and great teams.”